Esoteric Psychology II - Chapter I - The Egoic Ray - The Five Groups
of Souls

III. The Five Groups of Souls

We now begin
our study of the five groups of souls. For purposes of classification and comparison, we
shall divide our earth humanity into the following groups:

Lemurian
Egos - our true Earth Humanity.

Egos which
came in - on Atlantis.

Moon chain
Egos - from the moon.

Egos - from
other planets.

Rare and
advanced Egos - awaiting incarnation.

We enter,
therefore, upon a brief consideration of a subject that, to the ordinary psychologist and
student who is not familiar with the occult teaching and terms, will sound fanciful and
unintelligent. The reason for this is that we are considering the origin of the
souls which are expressing themselves through human beings, of the selves who are
functioning through form and are therefore intangible and - scientifically speaking -
non-provable. They are only to be inferred by those who can accept inference, deduction
and conclusions which cannot be demonstrated, with the type of human equipment now in use.
Modern psychology, speaking generally, regards the soul in one or another of the following
ways:

Either
non-existent, the only obvious and provable thing being the intelligent mechanism.

As being the
sum total of the conscious reactions of the cells of the body - the sentiency of the
organism, in other words.

As a
gradually evolving self, conveying life and, as time elapses, awareness; it is regarded as
being conditioned by the body and as a product of the evolution of that [202] body during
the ages. It does not, however, exist in the lower types of human beings, and it possibly
possesses immortality, but that is not provable and may not be posited as a fact.

As a
definite Self, an entity, informing a body, functioning at various levels of human
consciousness, and having continuity, immortality and potentiality.

The occult
teaching accepts all these hypotheses as correct, but as relative in time and space, and
as having reference to different forms of divine life and to differing aspects of those
forms. It is with the occult teaching, right or wrong, that we are at present engaged, and
our premises and conclusions can be stated in the following propositions:

1. Every
human being, in or out of incarnation, is a "fragment of divinity," and an
outpost of the divine consciousness, functioning in time and space for purposes of
expression.

2. All
these souls, selves, or human beings are found, as we have seen, on one or other of the
seven emanations of spiritual energy, issuing forth from God at the beginning of an era of
creative activity. They return to their emanating Source when that particular cycle is
brought to a close.

3. In the
interim between emanation and reabsorption, these souls pass through various experiences
until such time as they can "shine forth in all their exactitude of truth."

4. They are
called, as has been stated, in A Treatise on Cosmic Fire(See page 855.)

Lotuses of revelation.

Lotuses with perfume.

Radiant lotuses. [203]

Lotuses wherein the flower is on the point of opening.

Lotuses of closed and sealed condition.

The colorless lotuses.

Lotuses in bud.

5. These
souls, cycling through various forms of life in the long evolutionary process arrive
eventually at full, self-conscious existence. By this we mean that they are
self-determined, self-conditioned, and self-aware. They are also conscious of and
responsive to their environment.

6. Once
this conscious awareness is achieved, then progress becomes more rapid. It should be borne
in mind that many human beings are not thus aware. The groupings which arise out of this
awareness (limiting our ideas entirely to those within the radius of the human family) can
be expressed as follows: